The population growth coupled with improved health services has resulted and will continue to result in an ever increasing number of individuals who, through the frailties occasioned by aging or some temporary or permanent handicap, continue to live and to require either special care or special facilities to accommodate them. The same two factors have and will continue to exert economic pressure on the globe's limited resources, requiring societies to be more efficient with space. The typical bathroom in use today is larger than necessary, unable to accommodate safely the frail or handicapped, and is very often inaccessible being located on floor levels other than those upon which the user spends most time. The individual components of today's bathroom, even when the bathroom can be accessed, are inadequate to the needs of the frail and handicapped. The conventional tub, as Russell notes in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,719,960, sits on the floor with vertical upstanding side walls. The user must step over a wall and then sit down in the tub. While this procedure is safe for a normal person, it is extremely difficult for the physically limited or frail. Egress is just as difficult. The typical toilet is almost always so placed as to be inaccessible to the wheelchair bound. The typical toilet is also almost always too low for the frail or handicapped, making sitting and standing back up an unwelcome adventure. The typical bathroom has the toilet and bathtub in the same room but not so arranged as to be accessed one from the other. This limits the potential use of both as well as presenting a new difficulty when the user desires to use both in sequence.
To reduce the danger inherent in the typical bathtub, the provision of a door in a tub with a seat-height horizontal section extending from one wall has been suggested in a number of patents: U.S. Pat. No. 3,719,960, Russell; U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,810, Brickhouse; and U.S. Pat, No. 3,863,275, Brendgord et al. All afford improved safety over conventional bathtubs. The bathtub system disclosed in Russell, U.S. Pat. No. 3,719,960 provides for an entrance opening through a side of the tub which exposes part of the seat molded into the tub to enable the user to sit directly onto a portion of the seat as they transfer themselves from outside to inside the tub. The entrance opening extends to the bottom of the tub so that, as a person transfers into the tub, there is no need to step up over any tub side wall portions. Brickhouse, U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,810, contemplates a similar tub arrangement where the door for the entrance opening is removably hinged to the tub wall in providing free access to the tub interior without interference with an open door. U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,275 discloses adapting a similar type of tub with the provision for a hand-held shower head which can be used in combination with the bath water contained in the tub for personal hygiene. In these systems, fairly complex arrangements are provided for locking the door in the closed position to resist outward pressures of water contained in the tub.
Provisions have been made in the past for stand alone compact bathroom units, such as may be found in areas of limited space including trains and airplanes, or small size apartment units. U.S. Pat. No. 2,907,048 discloses a preassembled bathroom unit which includes a shower with toilet and sink mounted on an outside wall thereof and a hinged bench on an opposite wall of the shower. A permanently mounted shower head is provided interiorly of the shower walls. However, no consideration has been given in this design to the handicapped or frail. The shower enclosure requires stepping over a lower shower wall where the toilet is located completely independently of the shower entrance way. Another attempt in providing a combination bathtub/shower is disclosed in Canadian Pat. No. 1,000,902. A molded seat is provided in a corner of the tub portion with the opposite corner including entrance doors which are received in pocket portions of the tub wall. The seat is, therefore, located opposite the door entrance making it very difficult for the handicapped or frail to enter the tub area and be immediately seated.
Toilet constructions have been contemplated in combination with a bathtub, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,524. The toilet arrangement is provided within the bathtub and has the obvious drawbacks of sanitation even though provisions are made in the tub to deal with this problem.
In limited or cramped space, provision has been made for toilet constructions which provides for a use position and a stored position, such as disclosed in Canadian Pat. No. 457,576. The water closest is swung from a stored position against a back wall to an outward extended use position. Canadian Pat. No. 1,064,651 discloses a combination sink and toilet arrangement with the sink pivotally mounted above the toilet. The toilet seat is mounted on a track which permits movement of the seat portion relative to the water closet, from a stored position to a use position which functions in combination with the use of the sink. Another type of swing out water closet arrangement is disclosed Canadian Pat. No. 1,079,002. The water closet is stored in a cabinet. The cabinet doors may be opened and the water closet pivoted outwardly to the use position. However, such swing mountings for the toilet seat require considerable space compared to the overall size of the water closet.